


Petey Vol. 2 [remastered?]

by LeftShark



Series: Petey [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Age Play, Nonsexual Ageplay, little!peter, mom gamora, uncle rocket
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2018-11-06 23:30:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11046600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeftShark/pseuds/LeftShark
Summary: In the aftermath of what's happened, Gamora decides the Guardians of the Galaxy need to take a break from guarding the galaxy.Gamora buys a house, Mantis is introduced to the deeper side of the "family", and Peter gets the space he needs, figuratively and literally.





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> I got roped in to writing another fic like this but I've strangely enjoyed writing it!

It's hard for Peter to not be this way.

He's tried his hardest to shut that part of his mind down.

Things are different now. They've a new addition to the team and everyone's still trying to adjust to life as they know it.

Some nights Gamora can here Peter restlessly fidgeting in his bunk.

Those are the nights when she usually slips in beside him, puts her arms around him, and softly shushes him until he falls quiet and returns to his sleeping position.

Groot hardly sits at the foot of Peter's bed anymore. Mainly because his barrier-vines makes it harder for her to check up on Peter, or for Peter to crawl out of bed and pace around the ship anxiously when sleep isn't showing mercy on him.

He's yet to slip in to the headspace he tried so hard to avoid since everything went down.

He paces the communal area of the ship, twice around the table before he wanders toward the cockpit. It's much larger than the Milano (which he misses...they'll have to go back for it soon. He wants his stuff, he wants his first mixtape and his clothes and his Blasters...). When it's apparent that there's nothing for him to occupy himself with, he sighs and walks back toward the 'kitchen'.

Mantis is there when he gets there.

He never heard her get up. He must've been distracted.

"Peter Quill," she says, looking at him in confusion. "You are awake again?"

"Yeah, I...can't sleep," Peter says, frowning. He's tired, but no matter how many times he'd tried to sleep, he couldn't bring himself to it. "I haven't really slept much since...Y'know."

"You have troubles."

"We all do, I mean...we only came together because we were troublesome."

She reaches a hand up. It hovers above Peter's head.

"Do you mind, Peter Quill?"

"I...I don't," he's too tired to care.

Her hand pressed against his forehead and she takes in his feelings, blinking her large eyes in confusion.

"You feel like…a lost child. You are sad and alone," she frowns at him, removing her hand from his forehead.

Alone. That's the feeling.

Peter feel's alone, and he can't make sense of it. How could anyone possibly be alone when they were surrounded by 5 other people?

"Drax told me about you," she speaks quietly, and Peter takes note that she doesn't use her usual 'unknowing-yet-enthusiastic' tone.

"I hope he said only good things," Peter jokes, a small smile appearing at the corners of his lips.

"So you...you are their child?" Mantis questions. The small sliver of a smile fades from Peter's face.

"No, it's...it's more complicated than that. It's just..."

"You want to be cared for and protected like one."

"In a way..." Peter sighs. "As a young kid, my childhood was okay. But then I got a little bit older and, well...it wasn't so okay. The life I know changed forever and I didn't have the greatest up-bringing and...I guess what I wanted was just a chance to...have a childhood backed by support and love of a family. They're not blood family, but they're still family."

"I think I understand." She nods. "And...I can be part of your family?"

"Well, if you want to…" Peter shrugs. "If you can handle us, this broken little family we have."

She gives him a smile, genuine and soft. "I can handle it. You know...I have never had a family before! Or...a 'childhood' either. Maybe this will be a good thing, to join your family?"

Peter's answer was cut short by a yawn.

"Maybe you should sleep?" Mantis asks, ushering Peter back toward his bed.

"But I can't," he whispers as she nudges him to lay down. He climbs in to his bunk.

In the corner of the room, Groot perks up. He watches the two, still being sure to keep an eye out on Peter.

"Shh," Mantis shushes, putting a hand on Peter's forehead. The tips of her antennae glow as she activates her empathetic abilities. "You are tired. Sleep."

Immediately, Peter's head falls back and he falls in to deep sleep.

"Thank you," Gamora says, startling Mantis. "Lately I could not get him to sleep so easily. He wakes up a lot during the night and is restless."

"He told me about your...family."

"Did he explain everything?"

"No," Mantis shakes her head. "But I think I do understand it. Peter Quill needs all of the familial love he can get, after losing his real family, all he has is you..."

Gamora nods, "And we will take care of him as much as we need to…he needs us a lot. Especially right now."

 

 

 

Peter wakes up to something cold and wet tapping at his face. His eyes snap open and he's face to face with Rocket, who's standing on all fours in front of him, nose pressed against Peter's own.

"Hey, kid." Rocket greets, sitting up.

"Hi, Rocky," Peter says quietly, blinking his big green eyes a few times to get himself adjusted to having just woken up.

"You doin' alright, Petey?"

Peter nods, reaching a hand out to pet Rocket. His ears fold back as Peter's hand strokes at his head. Normally, Rocket would snap or bite at being touched like someone's cute little animal...but Peter was in his headspace, and when Peter was in his headspace, Rocket was anything but an asshole to him.

"I was just checking up on you. Also you should probably eat something, if I recall correct you you skipped out on eating your dinner lastnight, kid."

Peter thinks about it. He is pretty hungry. He sits himself up and motions for Groot, who has once again planted himself in the corner. The flora colossus trudges over in a few steps and lifts Peter in to his arms with ease.

Peter's grateful for Groot. And Drax. Both of them are very strong and can carry Peter with ease. (Groot more than Drax.)

With an odd bit of struggling and upper body strength, Peter climbs around Groot until he's riding piggy-back on the plant's back. Groot's hands go underneath him to hold him up.

Peter smiles, which is an attitude change from the way he's been acting trying to keep himself together as Grown Up Peter. It calms Rocket a bit, knowing that Peter seems to be alright.

"Gammy!" Peter calls happily as Groot steps in to the ship's kitchenette. She's sitting at the table, sorting through a stack of important-looking papers. She looks up and gives him a sweet smile, gathering all the papers and setting them aside.

"Come here, my love," she says, opening her arms as Groot sets Peter in the seat beside her. Peter slides over and in to her open arms, never passing up the opportunity for a good cuddle.

Mantis, who was sitting on Peter's other side, reaches her hand out and touches Peter's arm. Immediately, she's filled with a light, bubbly feeling and she lets out a few giggles. She retracts her hand with a confused expression. Last night when she put him to sleep, she felt heartache and misery. And all of that seemed to disappear, as if he was a different person. But the others act normal, as if they are content about it, so she doesn't voice her concerns.

"What are you doing Gamora?" Rocket asks, hopping down from where he had climbed on to Groot's shoulder to grab a box of some kind of cereal from one of the higher cabinets in the room. He lands on the table and sets the box down in front of Peter.

"I bought a house." She says, one hand moving to flick at the papers on the table.

"Don't want that," Peter pouts, pushing the box away.

"I don't care, just eat it," Rocket says, nudging the box toward Peter.

"I am Groot," Groot intervenes before it turns in to an argument, handing Peter a fruit, which he gladly takes.

"Don't give the kid what he wants, you're gonna spoil him!" Rocket crosses his arms.

"I say we let Peter have whatever he wants," Drax announces as he comes in to the room.

"I like Draxie's idea!" Peter nods vigorously as Gamora shakes her head.

"You cannot have whatever you want, Peter. He cannot have whatever he wants, Drax. It would be chaos," she says, but puts an arm around Peter. "We don't need our home full of an excessive amount of pets and unnecessary items."

"You just bought a house, talk about unnecessary things!" Rocket puts his small hands up in exclamation. "What do we need a house for!?"

They're arguing, but it's not harsh or mean. It's more like friendly banter. Familial.

Pouting yet again, Peter takes the box and a bowl that Groot has offered to him, and goes about pouring himself a bowl (with Gamora's help.)

"I bought a house because I think it would be good for us to have somewhere escape to for a while. We're so not ready to take on more jobs, we're good with what we have. Nova Prime has already sent for a small fleet of officers to find the Milano and have it brought to us so we can work on repairing it while we take a break. Although this ship is spacious enough for all of us, I would like to think Peter wants his ship back. The house is nice enough. It's on one of the moons orbiting Xandar. So we're close to the Nova HQ. There's also a lake, and it's far enough away from any other people so we won't be bothered unless it's important."

"So...we're becoming domestic?" Rocket asks. "Because I can't see that happening."

 

 

 

 

Later that night, Gamora clambers in to bed with Peter. She doesn't feel tired, so she doesn't sleep, but she knows Peter's mind is plagued with thoughts and visions that he can't control when he sleeps. It's the most she can do for him at the time. Just lay beside him, keep him company while he sleeps, and hope that somewhere in his brain he remembers that she's right there, right beside him.

He's laying on his side, facing her. His face is expressionless, which is a relief from the constant crinkles and frowns she's seen in the last few days.

Suddenly, Peter's green eyes snap open wide and his body gives a small jolt. He stares at her for a minuet. From the way he looks, scared and a bit skeptical, she can tell he's had a nightmare. One of his hands grips tightly to the bedsheet while the other rests on his torso just above his belly, as if he's clutching a wound. He looks like he wants to scream, but is containing it.

"It was just a dream, my love," she says, reaching out to stroke a hand down the side of his face. The hand on his abdomen reaches up to push hers away and he hums out a breath, furrowing his brow.

"I'm just Peter right now," he says, letting go of the bed sheet. "Regular me, and not, uh...Petey."

So he doesn't seek comfort through being held and coddled close. She nods and scoots over to give him some space.

"What did you dream about?"

"I don't know," Peter lies, rolling over on to his back. She guesses by his reaction when he woke up that he dreamed he'd been injured.

"If you don't want to talk about it, I understand," Gamora watches him as he scrunched his face up, deep in thought. "But please do stay in bed and try to return to sleep."

"He crushed my Walkman, and tried to harness my energy," Peter said, refusing to look at her. "It hurt like I was being stabbed, it kind of burned, actually, but I couldn't do anything about it. When he finally dropped me there was nothing wrong with me, but I could still feel the pain. I can still feel it sometimes now. Not the actual pain, but the memory of it...it's not the best feeling in the world. It's not dreams, Gamora, it's memories. When I'm not away to push it out of my mind, it floods in and I can't do anything about it. I can't stop it or think of something else. I can't..."

Gamora takes one of his large hands in her own and listens as he rambles on. He'd dreamed about Ego, the horrible man, and she knew that's what most of his recent dreams had been about.

Peter falls silent, squeezing her hand gently and closing his eyes. She thinks maybe he's tired himself out and is going back to sleep, but he speaks again.

"I miss him, Gamora...I don't know what to do…"

She doesn't have to think hard to know what Peter means.

"Yondu wasn't the best dad but he was better than Ego was." His green eyes fill with tears and Gamora can only squeeze his hand as he breaks down in to full on sobs. She doesn't hug him or hold him. The last thing she would do is make him feel constricted when he's freaking out.

A shadow appears beside the bed. The soft glow of antennae tell Gamora that it's Mantis. Tentatively, she reaches her hand out, waiting for Gamora's nod of approval before resting her hand on Peter's forhead.

Peter falls silent and his breathing evens. Mantis lingers for a moment longer; when she finally pulls away, tears fall from her own eyes.

Hastily, she wipes them away, accepting Gamora's "thank you" with a nod.

 

//

When morning comes around, Peter's little again.

When he wakes, he gives Gamora a good morning nuzzle before he slips out of bed, probably to go bother Rocket.

The rodent is sleeping in the pilot's chair, tail hanging limply off the edge of the seat.

"Rockyyy," Peter coos, kneeling beside the chair and batting at the striped appendage. Rocket's ears flick in annoyance.

"Go away, kid, 'm sleeping."

"But I'm awake!" Peter says, giving Rocket's tail a sharp tug.

"Ow, flark! That hurt, Petey!" Rocket sit's up, giving a soft glare at Quill. "What did I tell you about pulling the tail?"

Peter shrugs," It didn't hurt me."

"Cause you ain't the one gettin' your tail yanked by a kid who's up too early by any standards," Rocket grumbles, smoothing out the fur on the side of his face. He yawns, stretching as he does so and stands to his two little feet on the chair. He affectionately taps Peter's cheek with the tip of his tail. "Now I'm up, what do you want, brat?"

"Play!" Peter says, getting up. Rocket hitches a ride on Peter's shoulder, weighing him down a bit, but Peter keeps his balance as he jogs back toward the captain's quarters.

Gamora has since gotten up, making the bed and heading to the kitchenette to get started on breakfast for whoever would wake soon.

"All yerr stuffs on the Milano, Petey," Rocket says, hopping off Peter's shoulder and landing on the bed, nearly throwing the Terran over. 

"Nope!" Peter reaches down under the bed and pulls back a box. It's labeled "Quill's" and It's got stuff in there, stuff from Peter's childhood, Rocket assumes. "I found this the other day." Yondu must've kept it around.

It's got a few action figures of sorts, a book that Peter held on to even though he can't read (he's forgotten how to read English for the most part, he was only 8 when he left earth), and a few other things. Peter takes an action figure and gives it to Rocket.

"How old are ya, kid?" Rocket says, bending the arms of the figure clad in red white and blue.

"Hmmm," Peter thought for a moment. "Maybe, this many," he holds up five fingers. "I think, that is good." He gathers up his own action figure.

"So what's the plan?"

"Optimus Prime and Captain America battle the Kraken," Peter grins, holding up a plush creature with tentacles.

Rocket's attention diverts to the doorway, where Mantis is standing. Peter turns around to look at her.

"Can...can I play too?" She asks nervously tapping her fingers together.

Peter grins and digs another action figure out of the box, a man with blonde hair clad in pink and white. "You can be He-Man!"

Her smile is as wide as Peter's as she comes forward to sit on the floor with Peter and Rocket, taking the figure from Peter and listening intently to the boy's plans.

The happiness that she felt was her own, for once in her life.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team settles in to their new home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for mistakes. It’s literally 4:40 in the morning and i’m pulling an all nighter but it’s reached that moment where everything is fuzzy and a total blur lmao
> 
> A quick note:  
> Okay, so. Gamora is *basically* Peter’s ‘mommy’, if you wanna see it like that. But he won’t ever actually call her that because he was too attatched to his real mother and whatnot. He won’t call another person Mom/Mommy. So he calls her Gammy. (Which is an actual nick name used by Peter AND Rocket several times in comics, shows, and games.)

The house Gamora's purchased is nice. Very nice. A solid home with a wood exterior, an outside lounge area on a deck with a firepit, enough rooms for each of them, and a large, lakeside piece of land with enough space to land their ships. They chose to keep their ships further from their home. The Milano stays in a small clearing in one corner of the land, closer by to the home so they can quickly get to working on repairs, Yondu's ship stays parked on the opposite side of the land, on top of a very large, flat rock.

"I take back all the shit talkin' I did," Rocket says, stepping in to the fully furnished house. The dark wood floors and wood walls seem cozy enough. "This place is actually kind of nice."

It resembles a family vacation cabin. Or maybe some kind of oversized summer camp cabin, with a more home-y feel. A large space for many people to say.

Gamora rolls her eyes and holds the door open with her foot as Mantis steps in. Drax is still a good distance from the door, walking hand-in-hand with Peter, who's taking in the sight of all the trees and blue sky in awe.

"It's just like Terra," he says happily, "Except Terra is bigger, and the trees are brown and green."

Drax glances at the trees around them. The bark on the trees is gray-ish black.

As they approach the house, Peter lets go of Drax's hand and skips past Gamora and in to the house, slowing down to take everything in. "It's...ours?"

Gamora gives him a sharp nod and he grins widely, running deeper in to the house to go explorer his new home as the others settle things in.

The house is definitely large enough for each of them to have their own rooms, with an extra room that they'd decided to keep all of Peter's toys and other items in.

 

Drax steps aside as Peter rushes past him and in to a bedroom. It's sub-consciously decided that peter gets the master bedroom, since he's unofficially the Captain of the rag-tag team. Any of his belongings that survived the Milano’s crash will be placed in the room. And the room across the hall can be his 'play room'.

 

Rocket passes by Peter, who's got his face pressed up against the sliding glass door that led out back. The door opened to a raised deck, with a few stairs on the far side that led down toward the sandy shore of a lake.

“Outside!” Peter exclaims in Rocket’s direction, slapping at the glass.

“Not right now,” Gamora interjects as she passes, taking hold of one of Peter’s hands, “after dinner. Rocket can take you outside to go swim later.”

“Me? Why me?! I don’t like sand or water in my fur!” Rocket protests, giving her a pointed look, to which she returns with a stern glare that has him sighing and agreeing to take Peter outside after dinner. He’ll drag Groot along for extra help and, as he watches Peter happily make his way away from the door and through the living room, satisfied with the decision and already distracted with something else, he thinks that maybe it’s not so bad an idea. Peter could use some time outdoors.

While Peter explores the inside of his new home, the others work on getting settled in, bringing what they can from the nearby Milano, hoping to get their belongings out and clear the ship in preparation for repairs. Peter’s Toy Chest is one of the first items Drax hauls inside, and he places it down in the middle of the living room, immediately catching Peter’s attention.

“Play as you wish, little one,” Drax says, motioning to the box and earning himself and enthusiastic ‘thank you!’ from Peter as he rushes toward the box and immediately drops down to sit beside it, opening it up and digging through it’s contents to find which items best suited his mood.

He settles for four lizard-like creatures with long tails and sharp claws. Rocket had been the one to buy them for him (Peter was adamant that he wasn’t leaving the shop without taking the ‘velociraptors’ home and Rocket had agreed to buy him one but ended up with four because Peter insisted that they shouldn’t separate them from each other “because then they’d get sad and miss each other”.) Carefully, he sets each raptor down on their two feet, neatly setting them side-by-side, making sure they don’t fall over before returning to his box to pull out various other items, small cars, a few small plastic animals, and some half-built lego structures that had been completed and gently put in to the box, but were most likely crumbled doing the Milano’s crash. It’s not a big deal. He can salvage what remained and build up from there.

When he’s finished, he stands up and looks down proudly at his work. A few small buildings constructed of plastic bricks that he deems Animal Town. The residents of Animal Town, the little plastic bears and space-cows and fish and birds, either on top of the structures or scattered between them, and each velociraptor still lined up side by side. An exciting scene waiting to happen, but not without one last thing.

He looks around for the others, who have been in and out of the house, clearing the Milano and bringing items back to the house in boxes. Wandering in to the kitchen, he finds Gamora unpacking one of the boxes, slipping plates in to one of the many cabinets. She greets Peter with a soft smile and asks, “Do you need anything, my love?”

“Mantis?”

“She’s outside with Drax,” Gamora says, motioning to the direction of the front door. He minds his manners, giving her a soft thank you before making his way out of the kitchen and to the front door.

Outside in front of the house, Mantis and Drax are chatting, presumably taking a break from their many trips to and from the Milano. Peter wastes no time nearly skipping up to Mantis, interrupting the conversation as he takes her hands in his own and lightly tugs, indicating that he wants her to come with him. 

“Play!” He says. Mantis feels the surge of excitement coming from him, the direct touch feeding his emotions right in to her. As much as she loves it, she cuts it off quickly, keeping her powers under control. She was still new to learning to develop emotions of her own, and in order to do that, she had to cut down the use of her powers. She had to create her own feeling through her own experiences.

“Peter, I can’t—we still have to get more things off of the ship and I—“

“It is fine,” Drax cuts in, smiling at the two. “Go play with him. There is only a few boxes left on the Milano and I can get them without help. I am strong.”

“Thank you, Drax!” She yells over her shoulder, peter already dragging her back in to the house.

 

 

 

The last time he let her play with him, she made a great He-Man. Now it’s time to see if she’s great at being a velociraptor.

Peter crouches down to pick up two of the toys, holding them out for Mantis to take. Thankfully, she gets the hint, kneeling beside Peter as he takes the other two in his hands. She’s still not sure what he’s getting at, but she goes along with it. Lucky for her, Peter decides to give instructions.

“Dinosaur attack the city,” he said, looking at her very seriously as he moves one of the velociraptors closer to one of the LEGO structures that has a little plastic pig sitting on top of it. He then uses the dinosaur to push it over, causing the pig to fall down, then pretends to make the dinosaur eat the pig. “Then dinosaurs eat the animals. Okay?”

She thinks she understands, so she nods and follows Peter’s lead as he makes the plastic dinosaurs creep in to the city. She does as he does, using the dinosaurs to shatter the little brick buildings and maim the innocent citizens of Animal Town, hearing him giggle. When he makes dinosaur noises, she mimics him, making her velociraptors growl and roar as well.

For once, the giggle that follows is her own. Produced from her own enjoyment and not from her powers replicating someone else’s emotions. It’s a wonderful feeling, and she doesn’t want it to stop.

The two of them sit in the living room for a while, velociraptors in hand. Once Animal Town is destroyed, the velociraptors fight Captain America and He-Man. And they obliterate both of them and eat them for dinner. Then, the four little dinosaurs go on an adventure to explore their new home, laughter and dinosaur-noises filling the house as the two run off to go play in every room that’s not the living room.

 

 

 

“It’s gone awfully quiet.” Rocket notes from his spot on Groot’s shoulder. It was quiet, almost silent in the house, except for the kitchen, Where Drax, Rocket, Gamora, And Groot sat, finally relaxing after their long day.

“Too quiet,” Gamora nodded. Complete silence with a kid in the house usually meant something suspicious was up. She stood, setting her glass of water down on the table, and headed out of the kitchen, Rocket leaping off of Groot’s shoulder to follow.

She peeks in to each bedroom as she walked down the hallway, not finding Peter or Mantis in any of them until she reaches the last one. The play room. Immediately, she softens, smile forming on her face as she puts a finger to her lips and indicates for Rocket to hush.

“I’m not even talking, why are you shushing me?”

“Shhh!” She beckons him closer, and he pushes past her leg to step in to the room and she what’s got Gamora all smiley.

On the floor of the room lays Peter and Mantis, both curled up and nearly touching their foreheads together. Both of them are asleep. The pair seems content, Peter’s even got one of the dinosaurs loosely clutched in his hand, and Rocket can’t help but smile as well.

“Do we wake them up?” He asks.

“Not yet,” Gamora whispers, stepping away from the door. “Let them sleep for a little bit. We can wake them in an hour, when dinner is ready.” She doesn’t want to disturb their nap, especially since Peter had been having trouble sleeping recently. If he was able to catch up on some well needed rest, she’d allow him to nap anywhere he wanted.

 

Peter is still in his headspace when Gamora wakes him (and Mantis) from their impromptu nap for dinner. He doesn’t know exactly how little he is, but he’s big enough to eat without extra assistance, excluding the occasional wiping of his face by Drax. Gamora suspects it has something to do with her promise to let him swim after dinner. He’s too excited to take his time by having someone spoon feed him. 

He finishes before everyone else and, still, patiently waits for the others to finish before asking if he can go for a swim, and can’t stop the grin from spreading on his face when Rocket, only slightly reluctant, agrees to take him outside, telling him he’ll be waiting out back on the deck with Groot.

When Peter emerges out back ten minutes later, he’s dressed in a completely new outfit. He’s dawns blue swimming shorts and a red and yellow, striped, sleeveless shirt. His skin smells of some kind of protective lotion that he’s been coated in to protect his soft Terran flesh from becoming burned and irritated by the sun. Rocket can tell Gamora’s the one who dressed him. She took precaution. Drax would have just yanked Peter’s shirt off and told him to go have fun. He can be helpful in many ways, but fashion is not his forte. It wasn’t any of theirs. Rocket wore the same three jumpsuits, Drax never liked to wear shirts, Groot didn’t wear clothes, and Manrs had only ever worn what Ego had given her to wear. Gamora was the best when it came to picking out clothes, and the outfit that she’s chosen compliments both the big and little sides of Peter. If Rocket were a fashion nerd, he’d give an in-depth review.

“Let’s go! Let’s go!” The boy is brimming with excitement, his four dinosaurs cradled in one arm (because they HAD to go explore outside, too!) while he reaches out with his free hand to take hold of Groot’s. Three of them descend down the steps at the far end of the deck and gross the small stretch of grass to reach the sandy shore of the lake. Gamora watches in the doorway, where she has a clear view of the three of them tentatively stepping in to the water, while Mantis lingers somewhere behind.

“I’m going to join them. I think a relaxing evening would be nice for everyone,” Gamora declares, stepping away from the door and heading toward the bedrooms to find her swimwear. Drax, opting not to change, goes straight for the door and out on to the deck, dragging two of the long deck chairs with him as he makes his way down the steps and out to the others.

“Are you going to swim as well?” Gamora prompts when she returns, startling Mantis who’d been standing still and watching through the glass door, caught up in watching the others interact. She’s wearing a soft yellow sun dress, the top strap of her swim suit visible over her shoulders. She’s got a few towels tucked under one of her arms as well.

“I...I don’t know how to swim,” Mantis says shyly. “Ego never felt like he needed to teach me. There was to need for me to swim on his planet. I spent most of my days in his palace or on his ship…” She also did not want to intrude on their close family moment. The guys already seem to be enjoying themselves, Groot and Drax each holding one of Peter’s hands as they stood waist-deep in the water. He appears to be enjoying himself even more than he had been when he was playing with Mantis earlier. “I also don’t have swimming attire.”

“Just wear what you have,” Gamora suggests, stepping out in to the deck with Mantis slowly following behind her. “You can always change leter. And you don’t have to go deep or get in the water at all, either. But if you do, we won’t let anything bad happen to you.”

“O-okay…”

Having taken note of the way Peter had taken Groot’s hand earlier, Mantis reaches over, making a grab for Gamora’s hand. Although Mantis’ powers are not working their magic, Gamora swears she can feel excitement and nervousness emitting from Mantis as she leads her off the deck and over to the sand, only letting her hand go when they’d reached the spot where Drax had placed the lounge chairs. At first, Gamora had wanted to jerk her hand away. To hiss about not being grabbed, but she understood that Mantis only wanted to be included without making it awkward, and she was learning from Peter, who seemed to have some kind of magic charm when it came to bringing people together as a family.

Gamora sets the towels down on a chair and peels her sundress off, dropping it on the sand beside one of the chairs to reveal a simple black bikini. Somehow, the simplicity suits her, and she wastes no time getting in to the water to join the others.

Despite not knowing how to swim, and a slight fear of drowning, Mantis follows, immediately clinging to Groot as soon as she’s close enough, and not letting go. Groot doesn’t mind, though. Rocket’s climbed all over him, and Peter has clung to him enough times, it’s a comfortable feeling, being held on to.

Peter certainly has his fill in the water. Swimming in it’s own was, as he liked to describe, totally awesome. And it became even awesome-er once he’d remembered, after the pair had delved a little deeper in to the water while encouraging him to swim back and forth between them, that he’d became practically weightless. And near weightlessness meant that Gamora could hold him with ease and no strain.

Although Gamora was extremely strong, the evidence having been seen with Peter’s own eyes in the heat of battle, she couldn’t exactly carry him for long. Not the way Groot and sometimes Drax could. Her bouts of extreme strength usually only emerge during the heat of a moment, in the middle of a fight.

But here, in the water, she didn’t need adrenaline or motive. She could hold Peter on her hip with ease, and he could rest his head on her shoulder…and close his eyes…and just dose.

“Are you sleepy, my love?” Gamora questions, lightly jostling him to wake him up.

“Mm-hmm.” He hums as nods against her shoulder.

“Do you want to get out?”

“Uhhhh,” He thinks about it for a moment. He likes it here, being able to hook his legs around Gamora’s waist while he pillows his head on her shoulder, one of the most intimate holds, but he also needs a break from the water, and maybe Gamora needs a break from holding him like this. “...Okay.”

“We’ll be sitting just over there if you need us,” Gamora says, taking Peter by the hand as he untangled from her and leading him toward the shore. When they approach the lounge chairs sitting in the sand, She swipes a towel off of one of them and uses it to dry Peter’s hair before wrapping it around him, then takes a towel for herself, neatly wrapping it around her midsection.

She sits out on the chair, letting the sun warm her rich green skin and welcomes Peter in to an embrace as he hesitantly crawls over her and positions himself sitting side-sattle between her thighs. His legs drape over one of her tights, and his lower back rests against the other, and he patiently waits for her to lean over and pick up the sundress that lays in the sand to dig through one of the pockets.

His content only grows deeper when she pulls out and presents to him a blue pacifier. Something he hadn’t seen in a long time.

“It was still in the drawer on the Milano. I washed it off earlier.” She’d also been careful to make sure no sand had gotten on to it, and he feels a warm fuzzy feeling spread through his chest when he takes it from her.

He replies with a soft, “Thank you, Gammy.”

He’s not sure exactly how old he is in his headspace at the current moment, but it feels right when he pops it in his mouth and leans over to lay against Gamora, gently burying his face in the crook of her neck to keep the sun away, eyes closed and relishing the feeling of her putting her arms around him and gently patting and rubbing at his back.

He feels safe, and loved, and that’s all he’s ever wanted to gain from this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here’s a link to the outfit Peter was wearing when he went swimming  
> https://goo.gl/images/uq5Vo4  
> (I saw that image over a year ago and literally thought “this man looks like a child”)
> 
> ALSOOOooooo, sorry for not updating anything for like an entire year. My bad. I’m lazy. I also hope I didn’t miss anything while editing.
> 
> But, uh....I really love comments. Possibly suggestions or ideas to get me rolling with the next chapter?  
> Should I keep going with the little!Mantis? Is there anything specific you want to happen with Peter? Your favorite part of this chapter? Something more than a basic “update soon!!1!1!1” lol

**Author's Note:**

> I was gonna make Groot a baby so Peter could have a playmate but I decided to keep him as big Groot so he can carry Peter everywhere. (I can always write an alternate story where Groot is a twig but idk)
> 
>  
> 
> While writing this, I considered the fact that mantis didn't really have a childhood either...
> 
> So...little!Mantis???
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> I'd be up for writing it but I also don't want to take the spotlight from Peter because they story is supposed to focus on him.


End file.
